The World : Brazil to Cut 60,000 Jobs

The Brazilian government imposed a wage-and-price freeze, revamped the currency and announced it will lay off as many as 60,000 public employees as part of a sweeping program to control soaring inflation and trim a huge budget deficit. Union leaders threatened to call a nationwide strike to protest the measures, which eliminated an automatic monthly indexing of wages to inflation. “Inflation should fall drastically and abruptly,” Finance Minister Mailson Nobrega said. Today and Tuesday were declared bank holidays to allow time for the financial system to adapt to the new measures, which included a 17% devaluation of the cruzado.